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Hochtief wins contract to renovate airport for Saudi capital

German construction company Hochtief has won a large tender to help extend a major airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The contract is worth around 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion).

Hochtief will build the airport along with Middle Eastern building firms Pallonji Mideast and Nahdat Al Emaar, the German company announced Tuesday. The firm, based in Essen, has 55 percent of the joint venture.

Construction has already begun on the site, and is set to finish in May 2019. The project is part of a program to develop and expand Riyadh airport worth some 4 billion euros.

"We are happy about the major contract," Hochtief board chairman Marcelino Fernández Verdes said in a statement published on the company's website. "It underlines our position as an important infrastructure construction company."

Hochtief's work will involve the complete renovation of terminals 3 and 4 of the airport, as well as the re-construction of airplane servicing areas, and waiting areas.

The majority of Hochtief belongs to the Spanish infrastructure concern ACS.